Chapter Text
April 8th, 2014
Emmett Forrest had been a little surprised to see that Elle was home before he was; usually, with the hours she had been pulling, she wasn't home until after dark.
He had been even more surprised to see her standing in front of the mirror mounted on the hallway closet, cradling her now swollen-looking stomach and studying her reflection.
Upon hearing her husband entering, Elle looked up, her eyes landing on his reflection in the mirror.
"I know I might've dozed off during my last class, but I didn't think I was asleep for that long," Emmett joked.
Elle laughed, lifting up her blouse to reveal that her baby bump was made of nothing more but the winter clothes that had still been out because of the unpredictable Cambridge weather. "I was just playing around-- wanted to see what it would look like."
She opened the hall closet to put away the winter clothes as she had originally planned, then turned on her heels to face her husband with a bright smile. Though they had lunch together earlier that day, they hugged each other as if they had seen each other in a week.
An idea suddenly entered Emmett's head, and he pulled away so that he could look into her eyes. "Wait, Elle... are you--"
She shook her head. "No, Em, I'm not pregnant. I... I didn't even think that I might be."
Emmett felt his heart begin to sink a little lower; while it would have been a surprise if she had been, in that split second, he had conjured up in his mind what it would have been like. The excitement on their friends' and families' faces as they broke the news to them. Him and Elle shopping for baby clothes and furniture for the nursery. How beautiful Elle would look as her belly grew round and swollen with their child. Holding their newborn son or daughter in their arms for the first time. Seeing their baby grow up.
Of course, throughout their relationship and before they had gotten married, they had discussed having children together. It was something that they both very much wanted, but they had both decided to wait at least three years so that they could focus on their careers and on spending time together as a married couple.
"I was just standing here, thinking..." she continued, trailing off a bit-- her eyes darting to the floor for a split second before she looked back up at him. "Emmett... I know what we decided on, but..."
"But what?" he asked. "Elle, it's okay-- you can tell me anything."
"Remember last weekend when we were playing with Little Elle, Liam, and Seamus?" Elle asked, a smile crossing over her face again. "And you let them chase you across the backyard until you pretended to fall down, and they were crawling all over you?"
"Yeah," he nodded, a quiet little laugh escaping his lips at the memory.
Every Saturday, since the salon was closed and Kyle was off from work for the weekend, they would alternate between their house, and Kyle and Paulette's house for a visit. The kids adored their Auntie Elle and Uncle Emmett, and spending time with those kids was one of his favorite parts of the week. Both he and Elle were the only children of their families; while Elle had reveled in the attention that she had received as a result of being an only child, that title had just made him lonely. So he was happy to take any chance to feel like he was a part of a big family.
"Well... I started thinking that maybe..." Elle trailed off again before she picked the sentence back up. "I know that we agreed to wait three years, but..."
"Elle... do you want us to have a baby?" Emmett asked.
She nodded. "Like I said, I know that we said three years, but we're both doing well at work-- we're making enough that we can afford it. And we have the space in the house..."
"Elle, you don't have to convince me," Emmett told her. "I-- if you had told me that you were pregnant right now, I-- I would have been so happy. I-- I would've been over the moon."
Without thinking, his hand wandered over her stomach. He recalled one of their previous conversations regarding the subject, when the topic of his own father had come up.
Elle had known since that night he found her sitting on a bench dressed as a Playboy Bunny that his father had not been a fixture in his life. As they had gotten to know each other, he told confided in her of how his father had abandoned his mother when she was only a week away from giving birth, how she had spent most of his childhood trying and failing to find the perfect father figure for him, and how he had wondered for years why his father didn't want him.
He pushed any thoughts of his father away, choosing to focus on his and Elle's current conversation. "And... if you're ready to start trying... so am I. Elle... I know that you're gonna be an incredible mother... and I can't wait to hold our baby..."
Elle giggled. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Em."
"I'm sorry, I'm just-- do you want to start trying... tonight?" he asked.
She let out a louder laugh. "Maybe? You look a little tired, though."
Emmett sighed. "My day got worse after lunch. I don't feel like elaborating right now, but... it was a fucking nightmare."
"Aw..." Elle moaned sympathetically, leading him back into the living room.
They sat down on the couch-- a terracotta pink-- with Emmett propping his feet up on the coffee table while Elle nestled into his side. "But I don't want to talk about it right now."
Elle trailed a finger up and down Emmett's chest. "I know it's your turn to cook tonight, but... why don't we go out?"
"Oh, thank you for suggesting," he sighed again.
Elle planted a kiss on his lips. "You're welcome. Any idea on where you want to go?"
~oOoOo~
Surprisingly, it wasn't the instrumental of "Here Comes The Sun" that was the ringtone for Elle's cell phone that woke Emmett up, but it was the feeling of her stirring as she turned to reach for where it was charging.
The changing of her position had been enough to rouse him, as they fell asleep with Elle as the little spoon, but every morning, they would wake up with her head resting against his belly. Bruiser, also a bit startled by the sudden noise, had leapt from his usual position at the foot of the bed.
He watched through eyes-- squinting from the bright light emanating from the phone-- as Elle sat up and answered.
"Hello? Hi, Mom..."
For some reason, Emmett felt something akin to dread tighten up in his chest. Elle's family in Malibu were three hours behind them in Cambridge, and they usually tried to time their phone calls appropriately. If they were calling this late, something had to be wrong.
It was all but confirmed when he heard how tight her voice sounded as she choked out, "What?"
He took her free hand, trying to offer whatever comfort that he could, even though he had no idea what Elle's mother was saying on the other line. He could hear her voice, but his mind-- still trying to fully wake up-- couldn't make out any words.
"B-- both of them?" Elle asked.
The last time Emmett could remember her sounding so small was when she told him about what Callahan had done to her.
"What about Rosie? She-- she wasn't with them, was she?"
Emmett's stomach twisted into a knot. Rosie was the daughter of Elle's cousin, Tara-- only a week away from turning a year old. He and Elle had flown to Malibu the second that they knew that Rosie had made her debut in the world, then to spend her first Thanksgiving and Christmas with her.
And Tara...
She was only a year older than Elle. The two cousins had grown up within a five-minute walk of each other; both of them only children, they had been as close as sisters. Elle told him how, despite the year between them, they pretended to be twin sisters. They had both gone to UCLA, been part of Delta Nu. They had been bridesmaids in each other's weddings.
Both of them... if the other person wasn't Rosie, then it was...
"I--Emmett and I will be on the first flight in the morning, I promise," Elle said. "I... I love you, Mommy."
Emmett felt his stomach tighten up more. Elle set her phone back on her nightstand, and he squeezed her hand as she turned around to face him.
"That was... Tara and Garrett... they were in an accident," the words were stuck in her throat and she was trying to force them out. "They're gone... they're both gone, Emmett..."
He caught her as she collapsed into his chest, unable to keep herself from crying any longer. His heart felt heavy as a stone in his chest, pieces of it crumbling and falling into his stomach as it churned. He ran a hand up and down Elle's back, rocking her back and forth like a baby...
Rosie...
Hot tears formed in his eyes as he thought of poor Rosie. Not even a year old, and she had lost both of her parents.
For Elle's sake and Rosie's sake, he deeply hoped that he and Elle would wake up the next morning, and it would have all been a dream. He knew that wouldn't happen, but it wouldn't hurt to hope.